The present invention relates to apparatus which permits mailers to purchase the products and services of the Post Office in a secured system without the need to affix any conventional physical postage such as a meter impression or a stamp on a mail item.
As is known, postage is required on a mail item before it can be posted. Presently the postage takes the form of either a stamp, an approved meter impression showing the postage value and the meter registration number, or a pre-printed permit number in the case of contracted mailers. They are "postal currency" used as payment as well as the proof-of-payment for postal services. With the exception of Permit Mail, meter impression and stamp are usually affixed at the piece level as a last step in the mailing process when the mail item is packaged, addressed and rated. When the postage inventory is exhausted, the customer also needs to replenish the stamps or refill the meter. This age old mailing process is not cost productive and does not create any value as far as the customer is concerned. They are being done for the postal administration only.
In the case of Permit Mail which has the permit number generally printed on the mail item, a Statement of Mailing (SOM) is usually required to accompany the physical mail to indicate rating parameters such as quantities, services and dimensions. In the case of Canada Post Corporation (CPC) for whom the invention was particularly developed, CPC subsequently captures back the SOM data, mostly through keyboard entry, and invoices or debits the customer's account. Significant infrastructure costs and operating costs are incurred by both CPC and its customers to make stamps, rent meters, determine and apply postage onto the mail items, and cancel the postage. Because stamps and meters have cash trading values, they also create many security problems. The authenticity of the graphic meter impressions and stamps are difficult to verify on high speed mail processing machines; stamps and meters are liable to be stolen; the postage images can be easily reproduced from other printing sources; and the procurement of the postal "currency" is continuously an issue of concern for security and cost.
Another disadvantage of conventional postage application is that postage value is predetermined at the front end. This does not support a flexible pricing structure in which the processing requirements and therefore its postage is only determined when the mail item is processed and/or delivered to the end receiver.